AS HEARD ON – The Jim Polito Show – WTAG 580 AM: VPNs and there usage and more

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well during this period of social distancing we are experiencing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

If you are new to doing remote work or working from home then you are going to want to attend the series of webinars on tools, techniques, and tactics you can use to make this easier for you. These are all offered at no charge. Later next week, I will be offering a live training course on securing your computers, networks, and browsers. This will be deeply discounted. No pressure, but if you are interested, I would appreciate your business.

I was on with Jim Polito who was sitting in his kitchen under self-quarantine because the State of Massachusetts has advised their residents to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel and other unnecessary activities during this two-week time period. We discussed VPNs. What they are and when and why to use them and how to use them correctly. So, here we go with Jim Polito.

Craig You are on a laptop, if you’re at home, If you’re on an airplane, at the airport, at a coffee shop, and you are using a VPN to connect into the network at work. You are now exposing the business network at work to everything around you in that coffee shop.

Craig Mr. Jim Polito, this morning had me do a quick rundown of VPNs and why they might not be the right thing for you. And I talked a little bit about, but man some of the real cons to it and what can they do? And that’s all part of what’s happening later on. Today. I’m doing some intense stuff here on VPN, about an hour’s worth answering all your questions, and helping you to understand the house the whys and the when should you use it when it comes to VPN? Of course, you’re listening to Craig Peterson, and here we go with Mr. Jim Polito.

Jim There is nothing weird about Craig Peterson, nothing at all because he is our good friend. He is a source of invaluable information 365 days a year, but especially during this whole Coronavirus work at home time. He’s just second to none. Joining me now, our tech talk guru Craig Peterson. Good morning, sir.

Craig Hey, good morning, Jim. Yeah, I’ve been very, very busy with webinars. I did them every day, twice a day now for the last week and a half. I’ve got another probably two weeks’ worth, I think. We’re going to be doing a live webinar, or two of them one at 4 pm and one at 7:30 pm. But webinars where I’m answering everybody’s questions and I’m doing training. Today’s topic is a VPN because it’s very misunderstood. A lot. A lot of people need a VPN, but when do you need them? How can you use them? When should you use them? When are they useful? And even give some recommendations of some different VPN that you can use out there. So it’s been going well, I haven’t had a single, negative comment. And so far I’ve done about, I think it’s 12 or 14 of these live webinars just talking about remote workers working from home, what’s the technology need to use? What are the threads? How, how are they the home workers now endangering the office, but today’s VPN, we’re going to have more every day for the next two weeks, and it’s right there on my homepage.

Jim All right, and Craig, you’ve been making that available to our listeners, and you made it possible to listeners before you opened it up to everybody else. Greg, why don’t you give us just a brief tutorial on a VPN, and that is, You know, so people understand it. I didn’t know what it was until about five years ago, myself, and you know what a VPN is? And it’s something that yes, in the right circumstances, can protect your data and protect everything else.

Craig Yeah, you’re right. It’s VPN is the host. Again, we have a lot of TLS in this business, which stands for three-letter acronyms. VPN stands for Virtual private network. The idea is that you can hook up two networks together, that’s where it came from initially. You know, way back when we’d have to have a T-one line going from one point to another. And you probably remember those Jim because radio stations were using them for years of leased lines to connect to the transmitter. Yeah, and yeah, TV stations everybody. So that’s how it started. Well, those were expensive. I had two T-one lines coming to my house 25 years ago, and that cost me almost $6,000 a month. Very, very expensive. Things have changed today, and VPN came into being to replace those expensive leased lines. So with the Internet, what you could do is just have an internet connection and connect the remote office with the main office. And instead of having to have that expensive leased line, now you had a highly encrypted data channel, and it connects the two networks. So that’s where it started. Today what we’re using it for is very, very similar. We’re still using it to connect networks. And that’s the beauty of it. And that’s the curse of it. And here’s the curse smarts. You know, if you are on a laptop, if you’re at home if you’re on an airplane, At the airport at a coffee shop, and you are using a VPN to connect into the network at work. You are now opening up your business network at work to everything around you in that coffee shop.

Jim So you’ve been talking about open 19

Craig Yeah, exactly. And Covid-19. What are we trying to do right now? Isolate?

Jim Isolate? We’re trying to die. That’s the key.

Craig Yeah. Because here’s your significant danger. You walk into the house, and you bring Covid-19 into a home. And now all of a sudden people have it, and they’re dying. Well, what do you think happens when you connect on a home computer? That is a pretty high likelihood that it’s infected somehow? What happens when you connect that VPN now to the business network, you’re spreading disease so VPNs on No, no, no, you have to be very, very careful. So here’s another problem with the VPN.

Jim So I guess the way you look at it is no, but the way you look at it is, so the VPN is that secure connection. But if your connection to that secure connection is lousy, then what’s the sense of having that other secure connection between you and your employer?

Craig You’re making things worse. Exactly. Yeah, the connection may be secure. Yeah. So here’s your other problem, you go out. And let’s say you get a Norton VPN or something. And we’re going to talk a lot more about this. Today, I’m going to show graphics about how this all works. So I help people understand. But you get one of these free VPN services or even one of these paid VPN services. Your data is only secure from your device to the VPN server. So let’s say you’re using one of these paid VPNs and you’re connecting to the bank, and somehow you think And it’s giving you additional security. It’s not, and it is not at all. It might be making it worse, particularly with the free VPN services that are out there, you will be less secure because they are: what the old Willie Sutton quote, “why did he rob banks because that’s where the money is,” with VPNs that’s where the money is going.

Craig Yeah, the attackers are going after these three VPN servers and other VPN services, because they know that’s where all of the connections are. And some of these VPN services are even tracking everything you do, everywhere you go, and some of them are also evil. I’ve seen VPN services that are running through Russia that require you to install this unique key so that you can use it and are doing a man in the middle attack. So that’s why we’re going to cover for an hour today. It will be at 7:30 pm. I am going through this and helping people understand. They can be useful, they can be necessary, but they must be appropriately secured and used correctly.

Jim Alright, so Craig, there’s a lot of different ways that folks can get information from you. Now, I know you’ve got a landing page on your website, and I’m going to I want you to give that out. But the first way is to get other information from you that you put out weekly to me, and then we share here, and that’s by texting my name to this number.

Craig to 855-385-5553. So just texting Jim 2855385 5553

Jim Standard data and text rates apply now, Craig, for folks to get to your website, and to find out about this webinar, the VPN information how do they do that?

Craig Well, we have a registration on the site. The one that’s up there right now is for last night. I haven’t checked Just this morning, but I will be changing as soon as we get off the phone. Go to Craig Peterson dot com. It’ll be right there at the bottom of the homepage at Craig Peterson dot com. That’s s-o-n calm.

Jim Alright, Greg, thank you so much. I appreciate the time, and we’ll catch up with the next week. Unless, of course, something comes up, then you’re always welcome here in between.

Craig Alright, hey, thanks, Jim. Take care.

Jim Take care. Bye-bye, Craig Peterson everybody a great resource. All right, a final word. When we return. You’re listening to the Jim Pulido show from my kitchen with pops. Your safe space.